Be Assertive: Ask For What You Want

Dear Rookie Advocate, 

We have a special treat for you today. Our guest today hardly needs an introduction. But just in case you need a reminder, she is the first and current Commonwealth Lawyers Association Vice President for Africa, Immediate Past Law Association of Zambia President(the first female LAZ President) and she’s on our top 5 list of favourite Rock Star Advocates. We asked her for tips on the stuff that Rock Star Advocates are made of, and oooh did she serve some sauce. 
Please enjoy, Ms. Linda Kasonde.

Dear Rookie Lawyer,

Looking back, I wish I had had more self-belief. Don’t worry, follow your convictions and you will build that muscle with time. Also, there’s no such thing as a wasted experience. As Nelson Mandela used to say, either you win or you learn. Like most young lawyers, I was very idealistic. I took a course called ‘Civil Liberties’ at university and got bitten by the human rights bug. I tried to escape it by doing more “practical” and commercially lucrative subjects but always came back to it. Six years after I was called to the Bar, I decided I wanted to do my Masters. I was going to get an LLM in Commercial law. But there it was again, calling to me, ‘International Human Rights law’. So, I took my commercial law subjects and the human rights course; I loved it. It also became clear to me that I couldn’t do an entire Master’s thesis in a subject that I wasn’t passionate about. So, I decided to write my thesis on the need for economic, social and cultural rights in the Zambian Bill of Rights. Four or five years on that became the backbone of my knowledge of the Zambian Constitution and I became a campaigner for a new people-driven constitution that included those rights. We didn’t entirely succeed in getting a whole new constitution but our collective efforts certainly helped transform the Constitution. Please don’t confuse idealism with naivety. I believe that it is true that if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything.

“..people don’t get what they want because they don’t ask for what they want..”

Madonna

One of my most important lessons as a rookie lawyer was to learn to ask for what you want. As American pop star Madonna once said, “people don’t get what they want because they don’t ask for what they want”. I had saved up to pay the tuition for my Masters but had asked my firm for a stipend to cover my living expenses. It was given to me. A few years a friend of mine, Natasha Chiumya, who has been instrumental to my career trajectory, encouraged me to ask to be made a partner in my firm. I had put in the hours and I was good at what I did. “You deserve it”, Natasha told me. So, I asked and I got it. A few years after that, having built my courage muscle, spurred on by Natasha, I asked to be made named partner and to my surprise my partners agreed. A note to the female rookie lawyers, many will try and detract from your success, to attribute it to something other than your hard work and talent. Do not pay any attention to your detractors. As Oprah Winfrey likes to say, being excellent is the best response to those who may doubt your abilities.

Lastly, I would say that everything happens as it should, in its own time. God knows His plans for you. Stay true to yourself, follow your convictions and you will succeed. Success is subjective, everyone’s view of it is different. The best definition of success that I have come across is by American poet and writer Maya Angelou: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it”. Go out there and succeed!

Sincerely,

Linda Kasonde